Friday, June 28, 2013

As we celebrated graduations this month, I thought of these pictures of my grandmother. Agnes Elizabeth Speck graduated from Monessen High School in 1933. I don't know if this was taken near her home or who took the picture. They were living at 228 Donner Avenue in Monessen, PA at the time. At Monessen High School, Agnes was in the Glee Club, participated in operettas, and represented the school at a national speech competition. Agnes later went to Douglas Business College in Charleroi, PA and worked at Page Wire and Steel in Monessen. Agnes went to nursing school when she was 40's and worked as a nurse after her children were grown.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

I posted a few pictures on Mother's Day last month and last year. Now it's time for the Dads! I did find that we don't have many pictures of our family's fathers. Many were behind the camera, and several died before their spouses. Here are a few from the family collection:

This is the only picture of my grandmother, Agnes Speck, with her father, Frank F. Speck. This was taken in or near Monessen, PA in the late 1920's.

My father, Corky, and his brother Jeff pose with their father, Art Cubbage before the Memorial Day Parade in New Providence, NJ in 1954.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

I was in Pittsburgh over Memorial Day weekend with my family and we decided to make a few cemetery visits. My oldest son had been on "cemetery hunts" with me before, but my husband and younger son were on their very first trip. We took a ride out to Prospect Cemetery in Brackenridge, PA to look for a few collateral family members from my Burd line that I had found on Find A Grave.

We found the first two headstones fairly easily, but were having trouble finding the last couple of names. I guess I should also mention that even though it was the end of May, it was about 50 degrees, overcast and windy, and we had not packed for lengthy time outside (oops!). My sons and I ran back up to the entrance and found a map of the cemetery and confirmed that we were searching in the correct section. We went back, but could still not find anything.

My oldest son (and budding genealogist) suggested that we go back to Find A Grave (thanks to smart phones!!) and search for the name of a neighboring stone that should be in the same section to make sure we have the right area ... or that maybe there was a typo on the website. We confirmed a few names around where we should be, and still nothing. We took another step, and finally found two tiny stones in the grass -- we could only see first names!! I wish I had taken a few more "before" pictures because the story continues!

Find A Grave lists a Margaret, Helen and "Annie?" Burd as being in this section. Well, we had found two of the three, so we were happy. I snapped the above picture and then started clearing out the grass along the edges to get a better picture. My younger son noticed some letters above Helen's name, so we kept pulling away the grass. Guess what we found?? The two stones were actually one broken stone (or two pieced together) with all three names on it!

When we found the two little stones, all we could see were the whiter areas on the picture above - just the names and dates. We also found that the middle name is not "Annie", but "R. J. Jr." I believe that these are the children of Robert J. Burd and Minnie Roenick, so that is my next project.

So what did we learn on our cemetery visit?? Besides bringing lists of names, double checking online data, finding cemetery maps, and dressing warmly?? We learned that we should bring a small shovel and some gloves ... you may need to dig out a stone or two along the way!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Yesterday was my maternal grandparents' wedding anniversary. Adolf Haberkern and Elise Gegenheimer were married on June 4, 1942 in Stein, Germany.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my grandparents in 1962. I believe that they are at Newark Airport and my mother and grandmother had just arrived home from a trip to Germany. I love the way my Oma is looking up at Opa.